GILES (GIL, GILLES), ST, the name given to an abbot whose festival is
celebrated on the 1st of September. According to the legend, he was an
Athenian ([Greek: Aigidios], Aegidius) of royal descent. After the death
of his parents he distributed his possessions among the poor, took ship,
and landed at Marseilles. Thence he went to Arles, where he remained for
two years with St Caesarius. He then retired into a neighbouring desert,
where he lived upon herbs and upon the milk of a hind which came to him
at stated hours. He was discovered there one day by Flavius, the king of
the Goths, who built a monastery on the place, of which he was the first
abbot. Scholars are very much divided as to the date of his life, some
holding that he lived in the 6th century, others in the 7th or 8th. It
may be regarded as certain that St Giles was buried in the hermitage
which he had founded in a spot which was afterwards the town of
St-Gilles (diocese of Nimes, department of Gard). His reputation for
sanctity attracted many pilgrims. Important gifts were made to the
church which contained his body, and a monastery grew up hard by. It is
probable that the Visigothic princes who were in possession of the
country protected and enriched this monastery, and that it was destroyed
by the Saracens at the time of their invasion in 721. But there are no
authentic data before the 9th century concerning his history. In 808
Charlemagne took the abbey of St-Gilles under his protection, and it is
mentioned among the monasteries from which only prayers for the prince
and the state were due. In the 12th century the pilgrimages to St-Gilles
are cited as among the most celebrated of the time. The cult of the
saint, who came to be regarded as the special patron of lepers, beggars
and cripples, spread very extensively over Europe, especially in
England, Scotland, France, Belgium and Germany. The church of St Giles,
Cripplegate, London, was built about 1090, while the hospital for lepers
at St Giles-in-the-Fields (near New Oxford Street) was founded by Queen
Matilda in 1117. In England alone there are about 150 churches dedicated
to this saint. In Edinburgh the church of St Giles could boast the
possession of an arm-bone of its patron. Representations of St Giles are
very frequently met with in early French and German art, but are much
less common in Italy and Spain.
See _Acta Sanctorum_ (September), i. 284-299; Devic and Vaissete,
_Histoire generale de Languedoc_, pp. 514-522 (Toulouse, 1876); E.
Rembry, _Saint Gilles, sa vie, ses reliques, son culte en Belgique et
dans le nord de la France_ (Bruges, 1881); F. Arnold-Forster, _Studies
in Church Dedications, or England's Patron Saints_, ii. 46-51, iii.
15, 363-365 (1899); A. Jameson, _Sacred and Legendary Art_, 768-770
(1896); A. Bell, _Lives and Legends of the English Bishops and Kings,
Medieval Monks, and other later Saints_, pp. 61, 70, 74-78, 84, 197
(1904). (H. De.)
GILFILLAN, GEORGE (1813-1878), Scottish author, was born on the 30th of
January 1813, at Comrie, Perthshire, where his father, the Rev. Samuel
Gilfillan, the author of some theological works, was for many years
minister of a Secession congregation. After an education at Glasgow
University, in March 1836 he was ordained pastor of a Secession
congregation in Dundee. He published a volume of his discourses in 1839,
and shortly afterwards another sermon on "Hades," which brought him
under the scrutiny of his co-presbyters, and was ultimately withdrawn
from circulation. Gilfillan next contributed a series of sketches of
celebrated contemporary authors to the _Dumfries Herald_, then edited by
Thomas Aird; and these, with several new ones, formed his first _Gallery
of Literary Portraits_, which appeared in 1846, and had a wide
circulation. It was quickly followed by a _Second_ and a _Third
Gallery_. In 1851 his most successful work, the _Bards of the Bible_,
appeared. His aim was that it should be "a poem on the Bible"; and it
was far more rhapsodical than critical. His _Martyrs and Heroes of the
Scottish Covenant_ appeared in 1832, and in 1856 he produced a partly
autobiographical, partly fabulous, _History of a Man_. For thirty years
he was engaged upon a long poem, on _Night_, which was published in
1867, but its theme was too vast, vague and unmanageable, and the result
was a failure. He also edited an edition of the _British Poets_. As a
lecturer and as a preacher he drew large crowds, but his literary
reputation has not proved permanent. He died on the 13th of August 1878.
He had just finished a new life of Burns designed to accompany a new
edition of the works of that poet.
GILGAL (Heb. for "circle" of sacred stones), the name of several places
in Palestine, mentioned in the Old Testament. The name is not found east
of the Jordan.
1. The first and most important was situated "in the east border of
Jericho" (Josh. iv. 19), on the border between Judah and Benjamin (Josh.
xv. 7). Josephus (Ant. v. 1. 4) places it 50 stadia from Jordan and 10
from Jericho (the New Testament site). Jerome (_Onomasticon_, s.v.
"Galgal") places Gilgal 2 Roman miles from Jericho, and speaks of it as
a deserted place held in wonderful veneration ("miro cultu") by the
natives. This site, which in the middle ages appears to have been
lost--Gilgal being shown farther north--was in 1865 recovered by a
German traveller (Hermann Zschokke), and fixed by the English survey
party, though not beyond dispute. It is about 2 m. east of the site of
Byzantine Jericho, and 1 m. from modern er-Riha. A fine tamarisk, traces
of a church (which is mentioned in the 8th century), and a large
reservoir, now filled up with mud, remain. The place is called
Jiljulieh, and its position north of the valley of Achor (Wadi Kelt) and
east of Jericho agrees well with the biblical indications above
mentioned. A tradition connected with the fall of Jericho is attached to
the site (see C. R. Conder, _Tent Work_, 203 ff.). This sanctuary and
camp of Israel held a high place in the national regard, and is often
mentioned in Judges and Samuel. But whether this is the Gilgal spoken of
by Amos and Hosea in connexion with Bethel is by no means certain [see
(3) below].
2. Gilgal, mentioned in Josh. xii. 23 in connexion with Dor, appears to
have been situated in the maritime plain. Jerome (_Onomasticon_, s.v.
"Gelgel") speaks of a town of the name 6 Roman miles north of
Antipatris (Ras el 'Ain). This is apparently the modern Kalkilia, but
about 4 m. north of Antipatris is a large village called Jiljulieh,
which is more probably the biblical town.
3. The third Gilgal (2 Kings iv. 38) was in the mountains (compare 1
Sam. vii. 16, 2 Kings ii. 1-3) near Bethel. Jerome mentions this place
also (_Onomasticon_, s.v. "Galgala"). It appears to be the present
village of Jiljilia, about 7 English miles north of Beitin (Bethel). It
may have absorbed the old shrine of Shiloh and been the sanctuary famous
in the days of Amos and Hosea.
4. Deut. xi. 30 seems to imply a Gilgal near Gerizim, and there is still
a place called Juleijil on the plain of Makhna, 2-1/2 m. S.E. of Shechem.
This may have been Amos's Gilgal and was almost certainly that of 1
Macc. ix. 2.
5. The Gilgal described in Josh. xv. 7 is the same as the Beth-Gilgal of
Neh. xii. 29; its site is not known. (R. A. S. M.)
GILGAMESH, EPIC OF, the title given to one of the most important
literary products of Babylonia, from the name of the chief personage in
the series of tales of which it is composed.
Though the Gilgamesh Epic is known to us chiefly from the fragments
found in the royal collection of tablets made by Assur-bani-pal, the
king of Assyria (668-626 B.C.) for his palace at Nineveh, internal
evidence points to the high antiquity of at least some portions of it,
and the discovery of a fragment of the epic in the older form of the
Babylonian script, which can be dated as 2000 B.C., confirms this view.
Equally certain is a second observation of a general character that the
epic originating as the greater portion of the literature in
Assur-bani-pal's collection in Babylonia is a composite product, that is
to say, it consists of a number of independent stories or myths
originating at different times, and united to form a continuous
narrative with Gilgamesh as the central figure. This view naturally
raises the question whether the independent stories were all told of
Gilgamesh or, as almost always happens in the case of ancient tales,
were transferred to Gilgamesh as a favourite popular hero. Internal
evidence again comes to our aid to lend its weight to the latter theory.
While the existence of such a personage as Gilgamesh may be admitted, he
belongs to an age that could only have preserved a dim recollection of
his achievements and adventures through oral traditions. The name[1] is
not Babylonian, and what evidence as to his origin there is points to
his having come from Elam, to the east of Babylonia. He may have
belonged to the people known as the Kassites who at the beginning of the
18th century B.C. entered Babylonia from Elam, and obtained control of
the Euphrates valley. Why and how he came to be a popular hero in
Babylonia cannot with our present material be determined, but the epic
indicates that he came as a conqueror and established himself at Erech.
In so far we have embodied in the first part of the epic dim
recollections of actual events, but we soon leave the solid ground of
fact and find ourselves soaring to the heights of genuine myth.
Gilgamesh becomes a god, and in certain portions of the epic clearly
plays the part of the sun-god of the spring-time, taking the place
apparently of Tammuz or Adonis, the youthful sun-god, though the story
shows traits that differentiate it from the ordinary Tammuz myths. A
separate stratum in the Gilgamesh epic is formed by the story of
Eabani--introduced as the friend of Gilgamesh, who joins him in his
adventures. There can be no doubt that Eabani, who symbolizes primeval
man, was a figure originally entirely independent of Gilgamesh, but his
story was incorporated into the epic by that natural process to be
observed in the national epics of other peoples, which tends to connect
the favourite hero with all kinds of tales that for one reason or the
other become embedded in the popular mind. Another stratum is
represented by the story of a favourite of the gods known as
Ut-Napishtim, who is saved from a destructive storm and flood that
destroys his fellow-citizens of Shurippak. Gilgamesh is artificially
brought into contact with Ut-Napishtim, to whom he pays a visit for the
purpose of learning the secret of immortal life and perpetual youth
which he enjoys. During the visit Ut-Napishtim tells Gilgamesh the story
of the flood and of his miraculous escape. Nature myths have been
entwined with other episodes in the epic and finally the theologians
took up the combined stories and made them the medium for illustrating
the truth and force of certain doctrines of the Babylonian religion. In
its final form, the outcome of an extended and complicated literary
process, the Gilgamesh Epic covered twelve tablets, each tablet devoted
to one adventure in which the hero plays a direct or indirect part, and
the whole covering according to the most plausible estimate about 3000
lines. Of all twelve tablets portions have been found among the remains
of Assur-bani-pal's library, but some of the tablets are so incomplete
as to leave even their general contents in some doubt. The fragments do
not all belong to one copy. Of some tablets portions of two, and of some
tablets portions of as many as four, copies have turned up, pointing
therefore to the great popularity of the production. The best preserved
are Tablets VI. and XI., and of the total about 1500 lines are now
known, wholly or in part, while of those partially preserved quite a
number can be restored. A brief summary of the contents of the twelve
may be indicated as follows:
In the 1st tablet, after a general survey of the adventures of
Gilgamesh, his rule at Erech is described, where he enlists the services
of all the young able-bodied men in the building of the great wall of
the city. The people sigh under the burden imposed, and call upon the
goddess Aruru to create a being who might act as a rival to Gilgamesh,
curb his strength, and dispute his tyrannous control. The goddess
consents, and creates Eabani, who is described as a wild man, living
with the gazelles and the beasts of the field. Eabani, whose name,
signifying "Ea creates," points to the tradition which made Ea (q.v.)
the creator of humanity, symbolizes primeval man. Through a hunter,
Eabani and Gilgamesh are brought together, but instead of becoming
rivals, they are joined in friendship. Eabani is induced by the snares
of a maiden to abandon his life with the animals and to proceed to
Erech, where Gilgamesh, who has been told in several dreams of the
coming of Eabani, awaits him. Together they proceed upon several
adventures, which are related in the following four tablets. At first,
indeed, Eabani curses the fate which led him away from his former life,
and Gilgamesh is represented as bewailing Eabani's dissatisfaction. The
sun-god Shamash calls upon Eabani to remain with Gilgamesh, who pays him
all honours in his palace at Erech. With the decision of the two friends
to proceed to the forest of cedars in which the goddess Irnina--a form
of Ishtar--dwells, and which is guarded by Khumbaba, the 2nd tablet
ends. In the 3rd tablet, very imperfectly preserved, Gilgamesh appeals
through a Shamash priestess Rimat-Belit to the sun-god Shamash for his
aid in the proposed undertaking. The 4th tablet contains a description
of the formidable Khumbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest. In the 5th
tablet Gilgamesh and Eabani reach the forest. Encouraged by dreams, they
proceed against Khumbaba, and despatch him near a specially high cedar
over which he held guard. This adventure against Khumbaba belongs to the
Eabani stratum of the epic, into which Gilgamesh is artificially
introduced. The basis of the 6th tablet is the familiar nature-myth of
the change of seasons, in which Gilgamesh plays the part of the youthful
solar god of the springtime, who is wooed by the goddess of fertility,
Ishtar. Gilgamesh, recalling to the goddess the sad fate of those who
fall a victim to her charms, rejects the offer. In the course of his
recital snatches of other myths are referred to, including he famous
Tammuz-Adonis tale, in which Tammuz, the youthful bridegroom, is slain
by his consort Ishtar. The goddess, enraged at the insult, asks her
father Anu to avenge her. A divine bull is sent to wage a contest
against Gilgamesh, who is assisted by his friend Eabani. This scene of
the fight with the bull is often depicted on seal cylinders. The two
friends by their united force succeed in killing the bull, and then
after performing certain votive and purification rites return to Erech,
where they are hailed with joy. In this adventure it is clearly Eabani
who is artificially introduced in order to maintain the association with
Gilgamesh. The 7th tablet continues the Eabani stratum. The hero is
smitten with sore disease, but the fragmentary condition of this and the
succeeding tablet is such as to envelop in doubt the accompanying
circumstances, including the cause and nature of his disease. The 8th
tablet records the death of Eabani. The 9th and 10th tablets,
exclusively devoted to Gilgamesh, describe his wanderings in quest of
Ut-Napishtim, from whom he hopes to learn how he may escape the fate
that has overtaken his friend Eabani. He goes through mountain passes
and encounters lions. At the entrance to the mountain Mashu,
scorpion-men stand guard, from one of whom he receives advice as to how
to pass through the Mashu district. He succeeds in doing so, and finds
himself in a wonderful park, which lies along the sea coast. In the 10th
tablet the goddess Sabitu, who, as guardian of the sea, first bolts her
gate against Gilgamesh, after learning of his quest, helps him to pass
in a ship across the sea to the "waters of death." The ferry-man of
Ut-Napishtim brings him safely through these waters, despite the
difficulties and dangers of the voyage, and at last the hero finds
himself face to face with Ut-Napishtim. In the 11th tablet, Ut-Napishtim
tells the famous story of the Babylonian flood, which is so patently
attached to Gilgamesh in a most artificial manner. Ut-Napishtim and his
wife are anxious to help Gilgamesh to new life. He is sent to a place
where he washes himself clean from impurity. He is told of a weed which
restores youth to the one grown old. Scarcely has he obtained the weed
when it is snatched away from him, and the tablet closes somewhat
obscurely with the prediction of the destruction of Erech. In the 12th
tablet Gilgamesh succeeds in obtaining a view of Eabani's shade, and
learns through him of the sad fate endured by the dead. With this
description, in which care of the dead is inculcated as the only means
of making their existence in Aralu, where the dead are gathered,
bearable, the epic, so far as we have it, closes.
The reason why the flood episode and the interview with the dead Eabani
are introduced is quite clear. Both are intended as illustrations of
doctrines taught in the schools of Babylonia; the former to explain that
only the favourites of the gods can hope under exceptional circumstances
to enjoy life everlasting; the latter to emphasize the impossibility for
ordinary mortals to escape from the inactive shadowy existence led by
the dead, and to inculcate the duty of proper care for the dead. That
the astro-theological system is also introduced into the epic is clear
from the division into twelve tablets, which correspond to the yearly
course of the sun, while throughout there are indications that all the
adventures of Gilgamesh and Eabani, including those which have an
historical background, have been submitted to the influence of this
system and projected on to the heavens. This interpretation of the
popular tales, according to which the career of the hero can be followed
in its entirety and in detail in the movements in the heavens, in time,
with the growing predominance of the astral-mythological system,
overshadowed the other factors involved, and it is in this form, as an
astral myth, that it passes through the ancient world and leaves its
traces in the folk-tales and myths of Hebrews, Phoenicians, Syrians,
Greeks and Romans throughout Asia Minor and even in India.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The complete edition of the Gilgamesh Epic by Paul
Haupt under the title _Das babylonische Nimrodepos_ (Leipzig,
1884-1891), with the 12th tablet in the _Beitrage zur Assyriologie_,
i. 48-79; German translation by Peter Jensen in vol. vi. of Schrader's
_Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 116-273. See also
the same author's comprehensive work, _Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der
Weltliteratur_ (vol. i. 1906, vol. ii. to follow). An English
translation of the chief portions in Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia
and Assyria_ (Boston, 1898), ch. xxiii. (M. Ja.)